Mary Portas says that as TV presenter she is expected to give up her opinions
and become “bland and boring and dull”.

Portas, who believes that she is seen as just a voice, believes that her advice on the future of the high street has been dismissed by MPs because they see her as a celebrity.

But she said that the Government needed more people like her with real experience as they “don’t have a clue”.

Saying she was appalled by the idea of being pigeonholed as a presenter, she told The Times: “I feel I am not allowed to have ideas, thoughts or views any more.

"I am expected suddenly to be bland and boring and dull because I am a voice. If everyone ends up scared to have opinions even in their area of expertise, then it will all be very depressing and dull and regressive."

MPs characterised her review of the high street – published in 2011 and since adopted by the Government – as “nostalgic” and a PR gimmick to promote her TV series.

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Portas, who spent two years as the Government adviser on high streets, said: “The cowards. I haven't had a single text, call or thank you. You'd think I was a f***ing tax exile, when I was only trying to help."

She added: “The Government needs more real people like me who have commercial experience — none of them has a clue."

The mother of three has denied that she had any ulterior motive in the unpaid role and claims it is “idiotic” to suggest that she did it for her TV programme.

But the criticism will not stop the former shop worker, 53, who will not give up on her campaign as: “I love the high street. It saved my life."

The shopkeepers' gave her a lifeline and a community when her mother died when she was 16 and she was left to look after her father and brother.

When her father died two years later she was left homeless and her life was “seriously bleak”, but a shop job provided her with the means to put a roof over her head.

The retail consultant says she is fighting to make the streets communities again, adding: “I can't let them die now or a little bit of me will die.”

Wanting to recreate a place where people talk to each other, where neighbours bump into each other, is “not nostalgia, it's a human craving to communicate,” she argues.

“When the world is a rocky place and we can't rely on anything, we still want a smile or nod from the dry cleaner or newsagent."

She only thought of her programme as she was carrying out her advisory role, she said, wanting to bring the high street to people’s attention in the same way that Jamie Oliver had brought school dinners to our schools.

But noting they have both been attacked for their efforts, she recognised she may have been “naive”.

Despite the criticism she has received the public have been supportive and Prince Charles even wrote to her, saying “Bless you”.

“That made me feel a bit emotional,” Portas said.

However, she believes that Eric Pickles, the Communities Secretary, has been avoiding her and MPs were attempting to humiliate her when she went in front of the Communities and Local Government Select Committee earlier this month.

She was asked about her three-part TV series, Mary: Queen of the High Street, and whether she had been paid £500,000 by Channel 4.

She denied that she had received that much money, but faced another barrage of criticism when, the next day, she wrote to MPs stating that her two year contract was worth that amount.

Describing the appearance in front of MPs as “terrifying”, she says she had been confused over whether they were discussing her payment for three episodes or the entire series.